Rehabilitation Counselor

About the role

The Dayton VAMC Mental Health Service is recruiting for a Rehabilitation Counselor. This position works with persons who experience functional impairments and disabilities associated with mental health, physical, and/or psychosocial challenges affecting employment, independent living, or personal adjustment. They work with an interdisciplinary team to provide and coordinate a wide range of rehabilitation counseling services to Veterans with disabilities.

Responsibilities

• Serves as a developmental Rehabilitation Counselor (RC) providing vocational and personal adjustment counseling, therapeutic rehabilitation interventions, and case coordination services.
• Serves, receives guidance and advice from supervisor and senior staff as needed.
• Provides developmental vocational rehabilitation services to Veterans with a wide array of psychiatric and physical disabilities and psychosocial conditions that present a myriad of barriers, to achieve competitive employment and educational and independent living goals.
• Refers to Licensed Independent Practitioner for further assessment including completion of CSRE and Safety Plan, when indicated.
• Serves as a consultant to an interdisciplinary treatment team or other clinical staff as it relates to the Veteran's vocational rehabilitation needs.
• Communicates appropriately with community health care professionals to provide useful input to other team members and employers concerning the Veteran.
• Ensures fidelity to evidence-based and evidence-informed vocational and professional counseling practices.
• Evaluates Veteran's abilities and disabilities, monitors and records Veteran's progress to ensure goals and objectives are met.
• Selects, administers, and interprets psychometric assessments and vocational instruments to evaluate abilities, transferrable skills, aptitudes, interests, values, preferences, and overall work resilience.
• Customizes vocational exploration activities, including informational interviews and labor market research, to identify self-determined rehabilitation needs and goals.
• Determines clinical need for and capacity to benefit from therapeutic and rehabilitation services.
• Vocational programming benefits may include work restoration/resilience treatment, transitional work placement and compensation, financial benefits counseling, potential benefits protections, supported employment, and assistive technology.
• Develops patient-centered treatment plans, using Specific, Measurable, Agreed upon, Realistic, and Time-based (SMART) goals, and provides regular, ongoing assessment of Veteran's progress.
• Conducts a job analysis to identify essential functions and develop reasonable accommodations.
• Provides job development, job placement, job coaching, job accommodation, adaptation, retention, and education services to both Veterans with disabilities and for those employers who employ these Veterans.
• Conducts a job analysis to identify essential functions and develop reasonable accommodations.
• All other duties as assigned.

Requirements

Basic Requirements:

• United States Citizenship: Non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy.
• English Language Proficiency.
• Certification: Current - full and unrestricted certification as a certified rehabilitation counselor (CRC) from the Commission on Rehabilitation Counselor Certification (CRCC).

Qualifications

Education:

• A master's degree in rehabilitation counseling or clinical rehabilitation counseling from a rehabilitation counseling program accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP).
• A master's degree in counseling or clinical rehabilitation counseling from a college or university accredited by a national or regional accrediting body accredited by Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA).
• A master's or doctoral degree in a related field of study with course content that emphasized rehabilitation, counseling, disability, therapy, health, employment, wellness, or human development from a college or university accredited by a national or regional accrediting body accredited by CHEA.
• Foreign graduates with a degree acceptable by the Commission on Rehabilitation Counselor Certification (CRCC).

Experience:

• Completion of one year of professional experience equivalent to the next lower grade level directly related to the position being filled.
• A doctoral degree in rehabilitation counselor education or related field (e.g. rehabilitation psychology) from a CACREP accredited institution or from an institution accredited by a national or regional accrediting body accredited by CHEA.

Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSAs):

• Knowledge of human development and behavior, medical, psychosocial, and vocational aspects of disability and differential influences of environmental factors to assist persons with disabilities in determining suitable vocational goals.
• Knowledge of history, philosophy, and disability rights legislation in the field of rehabilitation to apply in the practice of rehabilitation counseling.
• Ability to synthesize assessment and diagnosis information in conjunction with labor market trends and community/educational resources to develop an effective individual service delivery plan.
• Knowledge of caseload management strategies to maximize an individual's independent functioning from assessment through provision of post-employment services.
• Ability to employ person-centered job development strategies to facilitate successful job placement.
• Knowledge of assessment tools and methods, functional capacity evaluations, and specific vocational preparation to evaluate transferrable skills, residual capacities, and needs for accommodations and assistive technology.

Skills

Knowledge of physical and psychological disabilities, appropriate accommodations and assistive technology principles to mitigate and reduce or eliminate barriers to integrate into the community.

Knowledge of counseling theory, medical and psychiatric terminology and signs and symptomology of suicidal and homicidal ideations, to communicate appropriately with community health care professionals to provide useful input to other team members and employers in relation to the Veteran and/or his/her family's psychosocial needs and to recommend and help implement suitable treatment plans.

Ability to use evidence-based and evidence informed vocational and professional counseling practices to include individual placement and support (IPS), customized employment and supported employment models and motivational interviewing skills to promote self-awareness, adjustment to disability, enhanced job retention and successful integration to the community.

Knowledge of career development processes and job analysis methodology to determine essential functions of jobs, worksite modifications and/or alternative vocational goals given the work history and residual functional capacities of individuals with disabilities.

Ability to administer and interpret a wide variety of assessment methods including transferrable skills and labor market analyses to evaluate for individual interests, aptitudes and abilities and to identify suitable vocational goals for the development of an effective individual service delivery plan.

Knowledge of marketing strategies to develop collaborative partnerships/Memorandums of Agreement within VA and local business community to enhance employment and/or work opportunities.

Knowledge of military lifestyle, specific factors, and dynamics associated with Veterans, particularly combat Veterans, to assist those who are returning to community and community based-work.

Benefits

N/A

Pay

GS-11

Schedule

0800-1630 - Monday-Friday